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The AIH Transcript for January 1, 2021

Hosts: Helen Mann and Ali Hassan

Prologue

HELEN MANN: Hello. I'm Helen Mann, sitting in for Carol Off.

ALI HASSAN: Good evening. I'm Ali Hassan, sitting in for Chris Howden. This is As It Happens.

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AH: Tonight:

HM: Continental rift. The head of Africa's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the world risks a moral catastrophe if it lets wealthy continents hoard COVID vaccines in 2021.

AH: Owls well that ends well. A Belgian man wasn't sure what to expect when a trio of Eurasian eagle owls hatched in one of his planters last year. But in a time of isolation, the results were a reminder that it does no good to brood.

HM: In that spirit, we'll revisit some of the interviews that lifted hours throughout 2020, including not just owls, but pelicans, chipmunks and a special breed of human that eats spaghetti with scissors.

AH: Guilt trip. The list of politicians under fire for their holiday getaways continues to grow. But Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says a minister who spent Christmas in Hawaii will keep her job.

HM: A window into her story. A celebrated French Canadian writer and nonagenarian asked other aging Quebecers to share their life stories with her. And she says the responses she received from older women were especially telling.

AH: And dear diary. When a historian's parents found two top secret notebooks in his childhood home, he was determined to track down their writer and respect her privacy. But when he found her, she made no secret of her thanks. As It Happens. The Friday Edition. Radio that's impressed by his sense of ownership.

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Part 1: History will judge us if we vaccinate rich countries while poor ones suffer: African CDC head

Africa CDC Head

Guest: John Nkengasong

AH: At the end of a grim year, many countries had a reason to celebrate. Frontline workers and other vulnerable people are already getting doses of the COVID-19 vaccine -- if they live in a nation rich enough to secure them. While Canada, the U.S. and much of Europe will be able to vaccinate their population several times over with the number of doses they pre-ordered, nearly an entire continent has been left scrambling. Dr. John Nkengasong is the director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. We reached him in London.

HM: Dr. Nkengasong can you please give us an idea of how badly COVID-19 is hitting parts of Africa at this point?

JOHN NKENGASONG: I think it's fair to say that we are in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic as we speak. We've recorded 2.7-million cases, and just last week alone, we recorded over a 150,000 cases. And if you look at you compare this when we peak in summer, that is in July, August of 2020, we were recording about 18,000 cases a day, and now we have exceeded that number. So as a continent, it is fair to say that we are right in the middle of a second wave of the pandemic. Most countries are actually in the upward trajectory on the continent.

HM: Now here in North America, vaccines have started arriving by the planeload. How different is it in Africa right now?

JN: Unfortunately, that is not the situation in Africa. We would really like to see also planeloads of vaccines arrive in the continent of Africa. We have been saying this for so long now. We have developed a continental strategy, what we are calling the whole of Africa approach to access vaccines in a timely fashion, and especially now that we are actually in the middle of a second wave. I think what I have actually called for is that our friends, partners, made a point of need, our point of need is now so that we can effectively fight the second wave of the pandemic.

HM: You have warned of a moral catastrophe. What do you mean by that?

JN: I think what I mean by that is simply we should not rest on our laurels and believe that by vaccinating people first in the northern hemisphere is normal. What may look very normal, may actually come on in the future to haunt us very badly. And the next generation may question the morality of vaccinating all the parts of the world because they were wealthy, and not vaccinating certain a part of the world because they were poor. And we don't need to get there. The richer countries have a lot of vaccines. They have excess vaccines. We now know that at least a couple of vaccines are working. So I think that what we should do to avoid that moral catastrophe is to redistribute those vaccines to the COVID facility and mechanism all directly through the African strategy that we developed and present it to the heads of states and endorse it. So that the continent should start vaccinating. It is for the collective interest of all of us living on the same planet that we vaccinate people in a timely manner to collectively avert this pandemic and defeat it once and for all.

HM: Canada leads the countries that have pre-ordered millions more doses than we will actually need. What are your thoughts on that? What do you want the Canadian government and the Canadian people to think about?

JN: Canadian people should see this as a public good, the vaccines as a public good -- that COVID will not be defeated everywhere except it is defeated all over. And that this is a moral issue. We want history to judge us appropriately that we were faced with a moral crisis and reacted in a responsible and reasonable manner, and in a manner that speaks to the global family we live in, in the world, and that we are confronted with a common challenge we reacted in a way that we consider each other as members of the same family. The silence of our friends will be remembered when the history of this pandemic will be written.

HM: Is it ethically right in your mind for Canada to buy up tens of millions of doses more than it needs for its population?

JN: I definitely think when Canada and other countries were procuring these vaccines, there was really no guarantee that which of the vaccines would work out. I think we have to start from a position where if I were the government of Canada at that time, what would I have done? I think the right thing to do was to gamble, go in for many vaccines and see which ones will work. But now that we know which ones, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the AstraZeneca vaccine, I think this is the time to step back and ask the question with respect to, do we need all the vaccines that we have acquired? And how can we redistribute those vaccines quickly so that we avert the moral catastrophe that I just described?

HM: Canada has already committed hundreds of millions of dollars to procure COVID-19 treatments and vaccines for developing countries. The prime minister has said an excess of vaccines will be distributed to countries that need the most. What more can Canada and richer countries do?

JN: That pronouncement, that commitment needs to be translated into action fairly quickly because Africa is experiencing a very aggressive second wave. I think theCanadian government from that pronouncement will need to sit down with an African vaccine acquisition task force that has been set up by President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss how those vaccines will be made available in a timely fashion. I think if by March or April, the continent has not started a rapid and vast vaccination exercise then we are really going to be facing a crisis at that time.

HM: In this country, many people are already critical of the slow pace of vaccinations, saying that, you know, the ones that have arrived aren't even being used in a timely fashion. So looking at March or April, that seems like a long way away for people in Africa.

JN: Absolutely. We're dealing with a virus that spreads very quickly. We're dealing with a situation where the second wave is here and we're dealing with a situation where the continent is experiencing a pandemic fatigue, where many people are moving around now, they're finding it difficult to social distance. So the vaccine that is now available becomes a very critical tool to be rolled out very aggressively. The continent is ready for that, but we need partnerships. We need partnerships from the government of Canada, partnership from our European friends and partners and from the United States so that we can begin that vaccination exercise earlier than later.

HM: Dr. Nkengasong, thank you very much for sharing your concerns with us. I appreciate your time.

JN: Thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity.

AH: Dr. John Nkengasong is the director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. We reached him in London.

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Jason Kenney

AH: Jason Kenney is hanging on to his municipal affairs minister. The Alberta premier had been under pressure to sack Tracy Allard since news broke that she was holidaying in Hawaii. She made the trip despite a public health advisory that prohibits non-essential international travel. But this afternoon, Premier Kenney said he wasn't going to sanction Minister Allard because she hadn't broken any laws or any direct orders from him. The Calgary Sun's Rick Bell found that a little hard to compute.

RICK BELL: Do we have to have a clear directive from you before people in your government have the moral compass to know what to do?

JASON KENNEY: Sure, Rick. Look, I think it was a significant error in judgement. And Minister Allard has told me that herself. And I've been not happy that people chose to travel abroad, people who are in positions of public trust, that there's a reasonable public expectation that we'll be held to a higher standard than simply complying with the rules. And so people are right to be frustrated with that. Rick, in terms of sanctioning people, I don't think it's reasonable for me as a leader to sanction people who very carefully followed the public health orders and the legal requirements in a province where we have been, frankly, encouraging safe travel.

AH: That was Alberta Premier Jason Kenney this afternoon in Edmonton.

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Toronto Diary Found

Guest: Nick Gunz & Alison Jenkins

AH: They are nearly 40 years old, and they come with strict instructions scrawled on a piece of yellowed Scotch tape, "Do not read. Private." The note also says this book is Alison's. So when historian Nick Gunz was given these two secret diaries by his parents, he knew just what he needed to do. We've reached Nick Gunz in Toronto and Alison Jenkins in Vancouver.

HM: Alison, this has got to be a weird moment for you. What are you thinking of when you know you're going to see these diaries that emerged 37 years after you wrote them?

ALISON JENKINS: I'm just really amused. Judging by other diaries that I have of mine, you know, it's going to be very overblown and melodramatic and mundane all at the same time. [Chuckles] So I think it'll be good for a few.

HM: Nick, take us through the story. How did you get your hands on Alison's diaries from so long ago?

NICK GUNZ: So my parents' house has this crawlspace around the base of the roof. And I was in and out of there as a kid a few times, but I never gave it much thought. Then a little while ago, there were some people in there doing insulation and they found some books there, and gave them to my parents. And when I went over for dinner, my parents sort of live in this house I grew up in. They handed them to me and said, What do you think of these? And I said, well, these are the notebooks of a small girl from the past. And I had an idea of returning them. But honestly, I had no idea how to go about doing it. So I took the books home and put them on a shelf and kind of rediscovered them last week.

HM: And what went through your mind when you found them again?

NICK GUNZ: I thought, what a pity that I can't give these back and have no idea how to find this person. And on a whim I said, well, why don't I just take a picture of them and put a notice on Twitter? And maybe someday this Alison person will Google her name and find it and I can get in contact.

HM: Do you have a lot of Twitter followers?

NICK GUNZ: No, not at all. Infact, I very seldom post things on Twitter.

HM: And yet it worked. So, Alison, how did you hear that Nick was in possession of these notebooks you wrote when you were nine?

ALISON JENKINS: Well, the funny thing is I do have a Twitter account, but I never use it. So I woke up on Sunday, checked my phone for emails, and I noticed I had a lot of Facebook messages and that they were all from strangers. So I opened up a couple of them and they all said the same thing -- they all said, is this you? And then they have a link to this website that had run a little story on the diaries. And at first I thought it was a scam because, you know, you get emails or messages from strangers, you don't click on the links. So I was suspicious. And then I saw that it had a picture of my old house. So I Googled the story. I realised it was legit. And I knew as soon as I saw the picture of the house and the photograph of the diaries with my writing on them, I thought, oh, my goodness, that really is me. So that's how I found out.

HM: You recognised your own handwriting from that age?

ALISON JENKINS: Yes.

HM: Do you know how they ended up in this crawlspace?

ALISON JENKINS: Well, the only thing I can think of -- I do remember playing in that crawl space and that room was mine when we first moved into that house. So I have a feeling that I probably hid them there from my younger brother, who is two years younger and was always threatening to find my secret stuff. So I have a feeling that I probably stashed them in there to hide them from him.

HM: You said when we started talking, you thought they'd be kind of embarrassing. Do you know what they contain?

ALISON JENKINS: I have a diary that I wrote, I think I maybe a year or so later and it starts out saying, 'May all who read these simple accounts, be glad that the writer was put on this earth. I pledged my word that all who read it shall be my friends.' So I was a little over the top. [Laughs]

NICK GUNZ: [Chuckles] That's so nice.

HM: It sounds like you're inspired by, you know, some other literary figures, perhaps.

ALISON JENKINS: Oh, I totally was. So my parents gave me a copy of Harriet the Spy when I was around that age. And I still think that's actually one of the best books ever. And anything by L.M. Montgomery, you know, Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon -- all of her protagonists kept diaries. So it was something I was very familiar with and kind of, I think, just assumed one had to do it. [Laughs] And I wore that mantle proudly. I was a diarist for many years.

HM: Nick, you are a historian -- what do you think captured enough people's imaginations when they saw this post that it made its way to Alison?

NICK GUNZ: Oh, it's just lovely, isn't it, though? It's a nice little mystery that these books that have been found in the crawl space and this person is presumably out there 30 years later. And who is this person? It's a wonderful little mystery. And for me, it was a very personal mystery because this is the house I grew up in and this is somebody who was there before me. So that was a very interesting, nice little thing.

HM: Now, the notebooks had that strict warning on them. What did it say again?

NICK GUNZ: They did. So I don't have them in front of me now because I've mailed them off. But it was something like "Private. Do not read!" And then there was a note on the bottom edge which said, Secret: the spy rules. [Laughter]

HM: So did you read them?

NICK GUNZ: I did not, no. Listen, I studied the CIA. I know what classification marking when I see one. [Laughter]

HM: But you weren't tempted to just peek a little bit?

NICK GUNZ: So these are the writings of a nine or ten year old girl, admittedly, like in the past. But she had privacy, right? She had secrets. And I didn't want to pry into her secrets. So when we were looking at the books, we decided that we were going to only look as much as we needed to -- to try and find clues as to who wrote them. And you have to be careful, right? Because when you read something, you can't unread it. So we were very careful only to read snippets and look through and find information that seemed important.

HM: Alison, had the situation been reversed, would you have read them?

ALISON JENKINS: [Laughs] Honestly, I probably would have. So I think Nick and his family were incredibly respectful because I think curiosity would have gotten the better of me.

HM: How did you two ultimately make contact so you could mail them off?

NICK GUNZ: Well, I think Nick's wife got in touch with me on Facebook. So we messaged back and forth and then I gave her my email. And so it just went from there. And now, you know, now I have Nick's e-mail and we were in touch and that's how they sent them off to me.

HM: What do you want to say to Nick, Alison?

ALISON JENKINS: Nick, it's so cool to meet you. I love all this synchronicity of the fact that a spy's diaries got found by someone who studies and teaches espionage. I just I cannot believe how cool that is. [Laughter] And it's so lovely when not only something like this is found, which is such a cute story, but it's someone that I actually, you know, feel like I could be and I'm friends with and is just a delightful person.

HM: And Nick?

NICK GUNZ: It is a real pleasure to meet you too. I have to say, I didn't even consider the idea that I would meet the person at the other end of this little mystery, right. And it's been really amazing and really nice to find that not only is the real person there, but the real person is super nice and super interesting person.

HM: If you two are ever in the same city post-COVID, I hope you'll let us know so we know if you actually meet face to face.

BOTH: Absolutely.

ALISON JENKINS: And Nick, you are more than welcome anytime. Come and have a coffee over in East Vancouver. [Chuckles]

NICK GUNZ: That's wonderful. Thank you so much. And ditto.

HM: What a pleasure to talk to both of you. Thank you so much.

BOTH: Thank you very much.

HM: Happy New Year.

NICK GUNZ: Happy New Year.

ALISON JENKINS: As you as well.

AH: Nick Gunz is a historian in Toronto who tracked down the owner of two 37 year old diaries that were once hidden in his parents home. Those diaries belong to Alison Jenkins, who we reached in Vancouver.

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Pandemic Stories

Guest: Janette Bertrand

AH: Quebec journalist and writer Janette Bertrand is no stranger to the spotlight. But her latest foray in front of the camera was for something decidedly different from her usual fare. In case you didn't catch that, that was Ms. Bertrand inviting herself into viewers homes to embark on a writing project with them and assuring them that they are more than capable of taking part. She figured some assurance might be necessary since she was soliciting contributions from some of Quebec's oldest residents, many of whom haven't written a word in their lives. Ms. Bertrand posted that video this past spring when Canada was in the throes of its first wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths. In it, she invited elderly Quebecers to share their life stories with her. And in the months since, hundreds of them have done just that. We reached Janette Bertrand in Montreal.

HM: Janette, why did you ask older Quebecers to share their life stories with you?

JANETTE BERTRAND: Because I am old. I am 95 years old. And I know that solitude is bad for old people. I keep young with projects. And I'm still there. I just finished writing a book and I'm beginning this week to write another one because it's life -- having something to look for and to make your life full.

HM: So let me just ask you. You helped these people by helping fill their days with memories of their lives, and then you got a great response. How many submissions did you get?

JANETTE BERTRAND: 600. And I read every one of them. You know, I said to myself, it's so many biographies to read. But when I finish one, I just keep looking for more because it was so good. It was us. It was our history. French Canadian, we have a story and nobody talks about it too much. And it was surprising. It was passionate. It was very interesting.

HM: So you got basically a social history from these people. And are there sort of things that stand out to you, common themes?

JANETTE BERTRAND: Yes. The majority of the biography came from far in the province. You know, I've been born in Montreal. I think it's dangerous to think that all people came from Montreal. Our parents, all of us came from the country because we have no education. When the French left us, when you gain the battle, all the very important French people go back to France and left the ordinary people without instruction, with nothing. So they decide, the government decide, to give us lands. But those lands were far in the country.

HM: So were most of the stories you received rural stories of life in these countryside?

JANETTE BERTRAND: Yes. And in the same time, the Catholic religion, said you have to have 12 children. You know, one of the girl who wrote to me, she was the 18th child. 18th! Imagine a moment all the women having 18 children.

HM: And as I understand it, a lot of the stories that you received, the majority were from women. So it's a woman's history of Quebec.

JANETTE BERTRAND: 88 percent.

HM: 88 percent. And the church played such a dominant role in their lives.

JANETTE BERTRAND: Oh, you know, we forget that the religion was so big that the priest will go every year in the houses and say, you must have another children. And the doctor will say no because you will die if you have another other children. And you have to understand when you have 18 children, the first one, if it is a girl, she will help the mother to raise all the others, but the boy will go to the 7th grade and that's all because the father need...

HM: The strength, the arm, the work.

JANETTE BERTRAND: The arms, yes.

HM: It sounds like the many of the stories were quite unhappy.

JANETTE BERTRAND: Oh, yes. But it was like a confession. You know, I wrote when I was 80, I wrote my autobiography and it was a therapy for me. So I tell the people that it's a kind of a therapy, you think about it, and you know that your children would like to know that. So I insist on writing for their children and grandchildren so they know where they come from.

HM: So if someone is listening to us having this conversation and they are inspired to put pen to paper and write their own story, have you got any advice for them on how to get started?

JANETTE BERTRAND: Yes, yes. It's very easy. You start with your parents, where you come from. Who they were -- that's the first step. And then they go to, 20 years old. And then 20 years old to 30 just to have a kind of a plot. It's very easy.

HM: Now, you embarked on this project during a time that has been incredibly difficult for older people around the world, but particularly in Quebec. What do you want our younger listeners to understand about what it is like to be elderly right now?

JANETTE BERTRAND: I just say to them, to the young, treat your parents, treat your grandparents like you will want your children to treat you. Do you want to go to a house full of older people or do you want to stay home? You have to have the choice. And to keep your head together, to keep writing like I do, to keep having discussion. You have to learn something all the time to force your brain all the time. Nobody tells old people that. They will say we'll keep you warm, we'll keep you in a beautiful house -- you have to do something.

HM: Janette I've learnt a lot talking to you today, and I very much appreciate it. Congratulations on this project.

JANETTE BERTRAND: Okay, thank you very much.

HM: Lovely to talk to you. Have a very happy New Year.

JANETTE BERTRAND: Thank you. And you too. Thank you very much.

AH: Janette Bertrand is a journalist, author, actor and nonagenarian in Montreal. She embarked on the Ecrire sa vie Project in collaboration with Montreal's institute universitaire de geriatrie. A selection of the biography she received will also become part of the collection at the Museum of Civilisation in Quebec City.

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January 1, 2021 Episode Transcript

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